As you read this document, lethal biological toxins may have already been released into the environment in your hometown, awaiting a two-week incubation period before symptoms appear among the citizens of your community, giving time for terrorists to jump on an airplane and exit the country with little or no trace of their involvement in a catastrophe that was once only imagined in fictional books and movies.

Readers may not give credence to this report, believing it is just another scare tactic written by someone with a hidden agenda. Please pay careful attention to the responsible sources and dates cited in this report.

Here is the reality of it all. A September 17, 2001 report by the Associated Press indicates Osama bin Laden, the mastermind Islamic terrorist, has been training troops how to use chemical and biological weapons. Foreign terrorists are onshore, mingling among us, and are ready to strike. The September 24 issue of TIME Magazine reveals that Islamic terrorists have been planning to disperse biological or chemical agents from crop dusting planes. [Time.com] About 20 of the people arrested after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center towers had obtained special driver's licenses allowing them to transport poisons or other hazardous materials. [New York Times, Sept. 26, 2001]

On September 24, just two weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist aircraft attack on the world trade center towers in New York City, the World Health Organization warned nations to prepare for the possibility of biological or chemical weapons attack. Michael T. Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health who is affiliated with the Infection Control Advisory Network, told NBC News that the United States is unprepared to deal with attacks using biological weapons. [MSNBC September 24, 2001] Doctors around the country are being alerted to look for early symptoms of biological toxins in their patients. [The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Sept. 26, 2001] Hospitals in Britain have been issued guidelines on dealing with biological or chemical warfare. [London Times, Sept. 25, 2001]

It's not as if political leaders and health authorities were totally unaware of the threat. Two years earlier Osterholm was quoted as saying: "I firmly believe that it is not a matter of 'if' a bioterrorism event will occur in the United States, but rather 'when, where, and how large?'" [American Journal Infection Control, December 1999] In the same year, Jessica Stern of the Council on Foreign Relations said "....improved technology has made biological attacks resulting in hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths all but inevitable." [Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 5, No. 4, 1999]

The World Isn't Prepared

In the event of a biological or chemical attack, David P. Fidler of the Indiana School of Law, writing in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, says: "Mass casualties and the 'worried well' would haunt hospitals and health care facilities that barely cope with normal health care needs. Confusion and fear would swamp infectious disease specialists trying to control the aftermath of an attack with biological weapons. Supplies of antibiotics and equipment would likely be quickly used up. Efforts to treat the sick and control the spread of the pathogenic microbe would be hampered by shortages of medical staff and absenteeism. Public order would be imperiled." [Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 33, 2001]

A survey of 186 hospitals in four Northwestern states this year found only 20% had plans for biological or chemical weapons incidents. [Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2001]

The public is alarmed, but possibly misdirected. An army supply store in Gardena, California sold 20,000 gas masks in 3 days. [New York Times, September 21, 2001]
Gas masks would provide some protection against nerve gases, but not biological attacks which are more likely to occur.

Vaccines not available

"The biological threat is one we are not adequately prepared for," says Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington think tank. She says there are only 12 million doses of smallpox vaccine in the nation now with a contract for 40 million more, but these won't be ready anytime soon. There are barely enough doses of anthrax vaccine to cover the movement of troops to any overseas battle zone. This leaves the majority of the population at risk.

As if working with foreknowledge of an impending biological attack, the US government ordered 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine from a British company in April 2001. Delivery of the vaccine won't begin till mid-2004. Recall that smallpox was eradicated from the planet in 1980. [NewsMax.com, April 23, 2001] The Pentagon has also ordered the development of 15 new vaccines over the next 12 years at a cost of $3.2 billion, which would counter some biological warfare attacks. But these vaccines won't be available anytime soon. [United Press International, September 24, 2001]

Health authorities have known about the shortage of vaccines and antibiotics for some time now. A 1998 report said: "There are insufficient supplies of medicinals and trained personnel to cope with a massive biological warfare." [Critical Review Microbiology, Volume 24, 1998]

The Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Newsletter says two things can be said about antibiotics with reasonable certainty: "In a mass casualty event, supplies will quickly be depleted. And in a major terrorist threat, mass distribution channels could either break down or be shut down in an attempt to prevent wider dissemination of toxic agents. Any centralized response system is very likely to fail." [Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Newsletter, Volume 16, January 1999]

Ken Alibek of the Batelle Institute, says vaccines are of limited value in an attack and says efforts should be concentrated on how to treat victims of biological weapons. [New Scientist, September 19, 1998]

Which toxins are we most likely to be exposed to?

There is a long list of potential biological and chemical agents that could be used to attack civilian populations. The most feared biological weapons are anthrax, smallpox, and botulism and the plague, and they are the most likely toxins to be employed by terrorists.

The US Department of Defense says that anthrax is the preferred biological warfare agent because:

It is highly lethal, 100,000 times deadlier than the deadliest chemical warfare agent.
It is a silent, invisible killer
Inhalational anthrax is virtually always fatal.

Anthrax is very easy to produce in large quantities and low in cost of production. It can be stored almost indefinitely as a dry powder. A World Health Organization report indicates 50 kilograms (110 lbs.) of dry anthrax powder used against a city of one million people would kill 36,000 people and incapacitate another 54,000. One terrorist group has attempted to employ existing commercial aerosol equipment for this purpose. [W. Seth Carus, National Defense University, Strategic Forum No. 127, 1997]

On a clear, calm night, a light plane flying over a major city carrying 100 kilograms of anthrax spores and equipped with a sprayer, could deliver a fatal dose of anthrax to up to 3 million people. [New Scientist, May 11, 1996] Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have created a model which estimates $26 billion of economic damage from the exposure of just 100,000 persons to anthrax. [Emerging Infectious Diseases, April-June, 1997]

Between April 1997 and June 1999, some 200 threats of anthrax bioterrorism were made. All the threats proved to be false. Some 13,000 "victims" were subjected to decontamination procedures. [Journal Public Health Management Practice, July 2000] There is good reason to believe these false threats will one day become real.

Anthrax is a bacterium (Bacillus anthracis) that kills about 80% of individuals without treatment. Anthrax cannot be transferred from one person to another. Symptoms begin 1-6 days after exposure. Initial signs of inhaled anthrax are flu-like symptoms, dry hacking cough, low-grade fever and weakness. As the infection advances symptoms such as shortness of breath, low blood pressure and hemorrhaging occur. [Chest, November 1999] Infected persons may improve after 2-4 days and then death follows. Penicillin and doxycycline are antibiotics of choice and treatment must begin prior to the onset of symptoms. Antibiotics keep patients alive till their immune system can build up immunity.

Smallpox is a virus which is contagious and kills about 30% of infected individuals. Civilians were routinely vaccinated against smallpox until global eradication of this virus caused a phase out of vaccine production. Smallpox has an incubation period of about 10-14 days. Red rashes are the dominant presenting symptom, which appear as hundreds of pimples on the face. Flu-like symptoms of fever, headache, vomiting and weakness occur. Complications include pneumonia, kidney damage and blindness. Smallpox spreads via mucus membrane exposure from patient to patient.

Botulism (Clostridium bolulinum) is the disease that occurs with improper canning of foods. Symptoms usually begin 18-38 hours after infection and include weakness but may be delayed for a few days, and include blurred vision, slow heartbeat, low blood pressure, vomiting and diarrhea. Clostridium botulinum may be spread by aerosol or food contamination.

The plague (Yersinia pestis) is another potential toxin that could be used against civilian populations. Treatment with antibiotics is effective. [British Medical Bulletin, Volume 54, 1998]

Obstacles to toxin delivery

While there is a wide selection of toxins that can be launched against the public at large, fortunately these toxins are not easy to deliver in municipal water supplies or via airborne contamination. Nerve gases must be delivered in tunnels or indoor environments (i.e. air conditioning vents) to reach proper concentrations, such as the Japanese religious cult that released sarin nerve gas in a train tunnel. Water supplies are filtered and cleansed repeatedly, as well as chlorinated, prior to entering piping systems, so water contamination would have to occur somewhere after water treatment. Experts indicate there is more danger from blowing up Hoover Dam and incapacitating water supplies to California than there is from any toxin added to Lake Matthews behind the dam. Even truckloads of toxins would be diluted beyond detection levels within a short period of time.

It is likely that some biological toxins have already been released into the air and water in the past but never were properly administered to reach toxic levels. If it weren't for these obstacles it is likely that biological warfare would already have been employed with tragic consequences. These facts can somewhat put the public at ease. However, numerous reports indicate there are major advances in aerosol particle technology that now make it possible to deliver airborne biological weapons, hence the fear over Osama bin Laden's secret army on US soil that has obtained training on how to fly aircraft and visited sites where crop dusting planes were housed.

Natural antidotes to biological toxins

Americans have grown so accustomed to relying upon prescription medications that they will probably have difficulty believing there are natural compounds as close as the kitchen cupboard that are potent antidotes against biological warfare. These natural antibiotics and antioxidants may give unvaccinated people who have been exposed to biological or chemical weapons enough time to secure professional care. They may even save lives.

It is a fact that chaotic events will make it difficult to obtain appropriate treatment even if it were available. So we must learn more about natural antidotes. Furthermore, it is clear that antidotes to biological attacks need to be employed at home or the workplace in an expedient manner. The idea of the masses running to obtain medical care or vaccines at doctor's offices, clinics or hospitals needs to be abandoned if civilian defense against biological weapons is to become a reality.

Natural rescue remedies

Since anthrax is the most feared toxin it will be addressed first. The Garlic Information Center in Britain indicates that deadly anthrax is most susceptible to garlic. Garlic is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that even blocks toxin production by germs. [Journal Nutrition, March 2001] Before vaccines were developed against polio, garlic was used successfully as a prophylactic. In one test garlic was found to be a more potent antibiotic than penicillin, ampicillin, doxycycline, streptomycin and cephalexin, some of the very same antibiotic drugs used in the treatment of anthrax. Garlic was found to be effective against nine strains of E. coli, Staph and other bugs. [Fitoterapia, Volume 5, 1984] Freshly cut cloves of garlic or garlic powder may be beneficial.

The antibiotic activity of one milligram of allicin, the active ingredient in garlic, equals 15 units of penicillin. [Koch and Lawson, Garlic: The Science and Therapeutic Application, 2nd edition, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore 1996] Garlic capsules that certify their allicin content are preferred and may provide 5-10 milligrams of allicin, which is equivalent to 75-150 units of penicillin.

The anthrax bacterium's toxicity emanates from its ability to kill macrophage cells which are part of the immune system. Studies have shown that sulfur-bearing antioxidants (alpha lipoic acid, N-acetyl cysteine, taurine) and vitamin C, which elevate levels of glutathione, a natural antioxidant within the body, counters the toxicity produced by anthrax. [Molecular Medicine, November 1994; Immunopharmacology, January 2000; Applied Environmental Microbiology, May 1979] The above sulfur compounds can be obtained from health food stores and taken in doses ranging from 100-500 mg. Vitamin C should be the buffered alkaline form (mineral ascorbates) rather than the acidic form (ascorbic acid) and should be combined with bioflavonoids which prolong vitamin C's action in the blood circulation. The powdered form of vitamin C is recommended to achieve optimal dosing. A tablespoon of vitamin C powder (about 10,000 mgs) can be added to juice. Good products are Twinlab's Super Ascorbate C powder and Alacer's powdered vitamin C.

Melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone available at most health food stores, has been shown to help prevent lethal toxins from anthrax exposure. [Cell Biology Toxicology, Volume 16, 2000] It could be taken at bedtime in doses ranging from 5-20 mg. Melatonin boosts glutathione levels during sleep.

Of additional interest, one of the methods by which mustard gas works is its ability to bring about cell death by depleting cell levels of glutathione. [eMedicine Journal, April 9, 2001] So glutathione is also an antidote for mustard gas poisoning.

Virtually all bacteria, viruses and fungi depend upon iron as a growth factor. [Iron & Your Health, T.F. Emery, CRC Press, 1991] Iron-chelating (removing) drugs and antibiotics (Adriamycin, Vancomycin, others) are effective against pathogens. The plague (Yersinia pestis), botulism, smallpox and anthrax could all be potentially treated with non-prescription metal-binding chelators. For example, iron removal retards the growth of the plague. [Medical Hypotheses, January 1980] The biological activity of the botulinum toxin depends upon iron, and metal chelators may be beneficial [Infection Immunology, October 1989, Toxicon, July, 1997].

Phytic acid (IP6), derived as an extract from rice bran, is the most potent natural iron chelator and has strong antibiotic and antioxidant action. [Free Radical Biology Medicine, Volume 8, 1990; Journal Biological Chemistry, August 25, 1987] IP6 has been found to have similar iron-chelating properties as desferrioxamine, a drug commonly used to kill germs, tumor cells or to remove undesirable minerals from the body. [Biochemistry Journal, September 15, 1993] IP6 rice bran extract (2000-4000 mg) should be taken in between meals with filtered or bottled water only (no juice).

The antibacterial, antiseptic action of plant oils has been described in recent medical literature and may be helpful in fighting biological toxins. [Journal Applied Microbiology, Volume 88, 2000] A potent natural antibiotic, more powerful than many prescription antibiotics, is oil of oregano. One study showed that oregano completely inhibited the growth of 25 germs such as Staphylococcus aureas, Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. [Journal Food Protection, July 2001] Oregano has been shown to be effective in eradicating intestinal parasites in humans. [Phytotherapy Research, May 2000] Wild oregano, which is quite different than the variety on most kitchen spice racks, has over 50 antibacterial compounds. Just one part wild oregano oil in 4000 dilution sterilizes contaminated water. [London Times, May 8, 2001]

Oregano powder from whole leaf oregano is available as OregamaxTM capsules (North American Herb & Spice Co.). A spectacular development in natural antibiotic therapy is the manufacture of oregano powder from 100% pure oregano oil, producing one of the most potent antibiotics known. It has recently become available under the trade name OregacinTM (North American Herb & Spice Co.). It costs about $1 per pill, but this is a far cry from the $16 per pill for Vancomycin, known as most potent prescription antibiotic.

Nature also provides nerve gas antitoxins. Nerve gas interrupts the normal transmission of nerve impulses by altering levels of acetycholinesterase, the enzyme that degrades the nerve transmitter acetycholine. Huperzine A, a derivative of Chinese club moss, has been suggested as a pre-treatment against nerve gases. [Annals Pharmacology France, January 2000] The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research conducted studies which revealed that huperzine A protects against nerve gas poisoning in a superior manner to physostigmine, a long-standing anti-nerve toxin.drug. [Defense Technical Information Center Review, Volume 2, December 1996] Huperzine A is available as a food supplement at most health food stores. Suggested dosage is 150 mcg per day. Pretreatment is advised prior to nerve gas exposure.

Summary

The threat of biological warfare is real and concern over preparedness of the civilian population and medical professionals is growing. There is virtually no practical way that vaccines, antibiotics or other treatment can be delivered to a frightened populace in a timely manner during a crisis. The current strategy of having an unprotected citizenry travel to physicians' offices or hospitals to receive prophylactic care or treatment is unfeasible. The public must be armed with preventive or therapeutic agents in their vehicles, homes and the workplace. Natural antibiotics and antitoxins are well documented in the medical literature, but overlooked by health authorities. These antidotes are readily available for the public to acquire and place in an emergency biological response kit.